The Pulse, November 12, 2019

As many of you are aware, we have initiated the Institutional reaccreditation process with  SACSCOC (The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges) and their on-site visit to our campus is scheduled for the end of March.

An important part of our reaccreditation is the roll-out of our Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP).   The QEP concept reflects and affirms our ongoing commitment to enhancing overall institutional quality and effectiveness by focusing on improving our students’ learning outcomes and success.

With significant input from our students and other stakeholders across the institution, we identified a critical need to focus our QEP on student “wellbeing” as it addresses key areas including stress, anxiety, depression, sleep issues, burnout, cognitive load and financial pressures.

Our program will be centered around the “Science of Wellbeing” from the PERMA Theory of Wellbeing.  This approach is defined as the interaction of the following five pillars (PERMA):

• Positive Emotion
• Engagement
• Relationships
• Meaning
• Accomplishment

As we are working on the development of this in-depth and engaging initiative, we are asking our students to participate in the program’s “naming” process and have created an online survey (all students who vote are eligible to win an Apple Watch.)  We encourage all students to participate in this process as their buy-in and ownership in the QEP is critical to our success.

This is just the first step in the communication around our QEP.  You will receive more information and ongoing updates as we move forward in preparation of the SACSCOC on-site visit.  In the interim, if you have any questions regarding our QEP please contact Thad Mantaro, Director, at 817.735.2983 or Thaddeus.mantaro@unthsc.edu.

As always, I appreciate your ongoing support and all that you do at UNTHSC.